Town Hall at Harrison Trimble High School (91.9 The Bend photo)
The final town hall meeting on safety and security in Moncton’s neighbourhoods has produced an action plan with 22 recommendations.
A large crowd of residents gathered at Harrison Trimble High School on Thursday night.
Boosting police presence in schools and neighbourhoods, enforcing panhandling bylaws, installing cameras in some problem areas and faster removal of tent sites are among the action items.
West End resident Kim Christie-Gallant says she’s glad the City and the RCMP recognize there is a problem but she says this plan doesn’t have numbers or timelines attached to it.
“As of right now it’s still promises… and political promises sometimes follow through and sometimes they don’t.”
Christie-Gallant says this plan is a good start but it has some weaknesses.
Some of the action items are already underway or are planned while others will have to go through the budget process.
Moncton South MLA Greg Turner believes the province can do a better job in a few areas.
“Some of it revolves around public safety and some of it revolves around mental health services. Obviously the homeless shelters in some cases probably we can look at doing a better job there as well of helping with the management of these facilities.”
The province is also looking at greater accountability for recycling depots buying precious metals which have been stolen such as copper wire or catalytic converters.
Here are the 22 action items/community recommendations derived from the meetings:
Codiac RCMP area of responsibility:
- Increase police presence within community neighbourhoods
- Improve customer service for 911 calls
- Develop a resident and business reporting platform for immediate action
- Open community policing office on Main Street
- Increase police presence in schools
- Enforce panhandling bylaws
- Improve Codiac RCMP crime reporting
- Increase participation in Citizens on Patrol
- Install signage to promote Citizens on Patrol within neighbourhoods
City of Moncton area of responsibility:
- Increase presence of bylaw enforcement officers in neighbourhoods
- Improve education about the discarding needle reporting process
- Refrain from applying fees to the shopping cart bylaw and address shopping cart visibility
- Ensure tent sites are removed within a 24 to 72 hour timeframe
- Potential use of cameras in problem neighbourhoods
- Clean up garbage and debris in downtown core
- Ongoing community engagement and reporting
- Request CN Rail improve security along train track corridors
Province of New Brunswick area of responsibility:
- Establish mental health protocols related to the courts
- Establish tougher repercussions for repeat offenders
- Greater accountability for area scrap yards
- Address challenges at homeless shelters
Task Force on Homelessness and Downtown Security area of responsibility:
- Include more community members working within the task force
